Monday, April 30, 2007

N.J. Gov. Jon Corzine has a terrible accident after going 91 mph without a seatbelt in the rain. On the way home from the hospital today, still wheelchair-bound, he speeds:

"No one in the motorcade used emergency lights, as his driver had been doing at the time of the accident. They kept to a pace of about 70 miles per hour, even though the posted limit is 55 on the stretch of Interstate 295 that leads to Drumthwacket, the governor’s official mansion in Princeton, where Mr. Corzine will spend the next stage of his recovery."

Nice example. I mean, 70 in a 55 isn't huge, but under the circumstances. . . .

Pamela S. Fischer is paid $125,000 a year to oversee 23 employees and a $10 million annual budget as director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety [of New Jersey]. Did you know you were financing such an operation? Do you know what it does? Probably not.Anyway, when Corzine announced her appointment, it came in a press release touting her work in — are you ready for this? — toughening the state's seat belt law. Yep, that would be the law Corzine broke just before he went to intensive care.Mr. Reynolds seems surprised by Corzine's chutzpah; I realize the professor is a busy man, but if he had time to keep up with the foibles in this godforsaken state, he would be harder to shock...

Bob Ingle, in Sunday's Asbury Park Press, lets us in on a recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling - no, not the one instituting gay marriage, this one:

The Supremes recently reinstated a Garden State Parkway toll collector to his old job, reversing an appeals court ruling that the collector was properly fired for shooting a paint-ball gun at a moving car while the collector was leaving work.The collector's excuse — he was feeling stressed and annoyed. An arbitrator reinstated him, but the appeals court reversed that, saying he deserved to be fired. The high court bench warmers reversed that. It must have been too logical for them

So according to this Supreme Kangeroo Court, it is permissible for state employees to blast automobiles passing through toll plazas with paint guns in the State of New Jersey if said employees are feeling annoyed that day. And who can blame them? After all, making almost $45K/year (see this grade-school levelarticle printed by a "toll collector advocates" group of some sort) collecting change from passing cars is certainly a mentally challenging, and extremely stressful job, is it not? Sweet Jeebus, what do you do if you have to make change for a twenty???

As we have always said, New Jersey is simply a welfare state for lazy government employees who earn their undeserved salalry via the Democratic Party's gleeful rape of the middle class.And Ingle calls a spade a spade when referring to the union cronies and political appointees on the State Supreme Court (who are currently clamoring for a raise, if you can believe it):If they don't like their salary, let them go get one of those better-paying jobs they claim they sacrificed to be on the court. Most of them are political hacks. There certainly is no shortage of hacks to replace them. These are the same hacks whom, in order to placate a key New Jersey Democratic constituancy (here it comes), ordered that illegal aliens are entitled to uninsured drivers benefitswhen they get into car accidents within the state. Yup - sneak into the country, drive without a licencse or insurance, get into an accident, and get paid. With my money, of course.What a racket. Methinks even Tony Soprano would blush...

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Gates of Vienna tells a most depressing tale; that of a man losing his job for calling a Mexican coworker a...Mexican:

Pipe welder Bill Hendeley Jr. said he was fired from his job Wednesday for using the word “Mexican” in describing a person from Mexico at a group safety meeting.

Hendeley, who recently moved to Burlington, said he has never been fired, has never even been reprimanded for making inappropriate comments, and co-workers describe him as a model employee.At a group safety meeting Wednesday, however, Hendeley singled out supervisors and a Hispanic worker for smoking in inappropriate places. Smoking is only allowed in a designated area across the road from the plant.“ I guess if you’re a supervisor or a Mexican, you can smoke anywhere you like,” Hendeley reportedly told an Hispanic safety supervisor...

May I comment with the following?

Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. - Colin Powell

There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have. - Harry S. Truman

And we already know what Jean-Luc Picardhas to say on this subject....In the same post, Gates of Vienna gives us this laugher from Britain:Use of the word immigrant as an insult can amount to proof of racial hostility, the court of appeal ruled yesterday.I'll reply by endorsing these words spoken by FDR:If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. - Franklin Delano RooseveltSomewhere, George Orwell is smiling; he was prescient, albiet 20-odd years late...

Saturday, April 28, 2007

One would think the capture of al-Qaeda's #1 guy in Iraq, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, would be good news for America. After all:

...his most recent assignment was as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by U.S. forces last summer. Officials said al-Iraqi hoped to lead Sunni insurgents in Iraq and coordinate their efforts with al-Qaeda's global operation. The Pentagon said he traveled to Iran, meeting with al-Qaeda operatives to urge them to do more against U.S. troops in Iraq.

We captured an enemy military commander in a time of war, one responsible for directing the deaths of possibly hundreds of American troops and Lord knows how many Iraqi civilians; isn't that big news? Er...not really. Check out the headline:

You see, this is not about a key military and strategic victory on the battlefield, it is simply another way to attempt to scandalize the Bush Administration, and somehow discredit the United States. The Washington Post's lead to this story of an American victory in wartime has to be read to be believed:

An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaeda was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September.The disclosure revealed that the Bush administration reopened its detention program within three months of announcing that no secret prisoners remained in the CIA's custody. The program has been criticized by human rights organizations and U.S. allies.

Scandal! Bush might have misled the media! Hang him high, and release al-Iraqi, victim of American human rights abuses!Actually, this happened three months after Bush made his "announcement", so what do they expect? A press release stating the CIA is holding a secret prisoner? Has the media gone completely insane?

....human rights groups challenged the Bush administration and the CIA to publicly reveal their interrogation methods and disputed the legality of secret detention.Yesterday's announcement "raises worrying questions about how long he has been detained by the CIA, where he was held, what kind of treatment he endured, and whether other prisoners still remain in CIA detention," the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch said in a statement, referring to al-Iraqi. The group called the secret detention "a blatant violation of international law."

What about the capture of the man guilty of slaughtering hundreds, maybe thousands, of innocent Iraqi civilians? No comment on that, I notice, from "Human Rights Watch". What a joke...next stop Gaza, to denounce Israel, while keeping their backs smartly turned to the Quassam rockets being fired by Hamas at civilian targets.Meanwhile, and not unrelated, we have this:

U.S. forces detained 17 suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday, the military said, a day after the Pentagon announced the capture of one of the terror network's most senior and experienced operatives.The insurgent group has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, including the bombing last year of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra that touched off a fierce cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence.

Seems like the capture and "secret detention" of HRW's fuzzy little al-Qaeda leader has paid some dividends, and saved some lives. No mention of this in the Washington Post; they have an agenda to follow, and the truth has absolutely no part in it...More on the big picture here.

Friday, April 27, 2007

The core problem is connected to the satellization of Europe by the Arab and Muslim world....Britain was humbled and did not react firmly to the kidnapping of fifteen of its sailors by Iran. Instead, British journalists and academia turned with violent hatred against Israel to appease Muslim governments and particularly the Palestinians who had abducted, for ransom, a BBC journalist. Such behaviour is typical of dhimmitude: the Christian dhimmi, being too afraid to attack his Muslim oppressor, directs his impotent frustration against a weaker and innocent dhimmi victim, the Jew. Those triangular relationships are constant in the social and political fabric of dhimmitude for more than a millennium and till today.

It's not just the British that have taken up Jew-bashing as a way to make themselves feel better (and to gain nods of approval from their Muslim masters), the French have long been on board this ship - via Melanie Phillips, the following report on the state of Jews under seige in France:

A more basic problem also exists: the way French society reacted to these attacks, always beginning by denying, refusing to accept the reality and accusing the Jewish community of being the instigator of aggression. As always, the Jews have been accused of being responsible for the outbreak of antisemitism. The same reaction occurred some years afterwards, in 2006, even after Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy came to power, when the young man Ilan Halimi was murdered. These reactions are the symptom of a profound crisis: a permanent, not temporary, crisis of the Jewish condition in France. My thesis is that the Jewish identity born after World War II is no longer backed up by French society. It became a thing of the past. The Jews are at a crossroads and will have to choose which road they will take.

I'm sure the French would love to see their nation become "Juden-frei" in the hopes it would settle down those pesky car-burning "youths" of unknown nationality in the suburbs...the fact that they will turn on the rest of the French population once this occurs never seems to enter their minds...

And is the revitalized European anti-semitism and pro-Arabism all about...guilt?

In short, the Palestinian cause has provided a humanity weary of apologizing for having abandoned six million Jews to their deaths the unhoped-for opportunity to relieve itself of the burden of repentance.

Is erasing the burden of their guilt worth sacrificing the Jews to the 21st century's Nazis? Apparently, the Europeans believe so. For all of their moral posturing, their collective soul remains mean, dark, hateful, and small. Internally, though, it seems as if the French are at least on some level aware of how contemptible they really are:

The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French.

Based on their embrace of their imminent status as dhimmis under Islamist rule, their feelings of self-loathing are correctly expressed....

Thursday, April 26, 2007

High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct. . . .Lee, an 18-year-old straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with disorderly conduct for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

James Taranto comments:

....the real point is this: What in the hell are police doing arresting someone for a piece of writing merely because someone was "disturbed" by it? This is the most obvious violation of the right to free speech we've heard of in a long time.

BASH:The phrase “the war is lost” really touched a nerve. Do you stand by that — that — that comment?REID:General Petraeus has said that only 20 percent of the war can be won militarily...BASH: But, sir, General Petraeus has not said the war is lost. I just want to ask you again…REID: General — General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily. He said that.< ...>BASH: Is there something to that, an 18- and 19-year-old person in the service in Iraq who is serving, risking their lives, in some cases losing their life, hearing somebody like you back in Washington saying that they’re fighting for a lost cause?REID:General Petraeus has told them that.

BASH: He also said that General Petraeus is going to come to the Hill and make it clear to you that there is progress going on in Iraq, that the so-called surge is working. Will you believe him when he says that?REID:No, I don’t believe him, because it’s not happening.

The highest Congressional official in the land, in a time of war, declaring our nation defeated and calling a four-star general a liar! Yes, I know, a Federation officer would never dare speak so, but...what say you about such a man, Captain Picard? What say you?

"Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness."

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

...then it is time for some good old-fashioned Hillary Clinton bashing! Ah, I've avoided the 'ol gal for a while, but there are too many tasty treats out there to resist! First, I'll give a Jersey guy a crack - from Enlighten, we hear a tale of how Hillary is not simply a privileged white woman who has partnered in law firms, earned dollars from shady land deals, and make the laws of the land while living in one of America's most exclusive suburbs...she's actually a struggling black slave woman, a modern-day Moses!

You see, Hillary was faced with a faulty microphone at a recent Manhatten speaking engagement. Gathering her tattered minions around her, she spoke thusly:

"This reminds me of one of my favorite American heroines, Harriet Tubman," the senator told 1,800 cheering supporters when her mike was restored."

She made it to freedom after having been a slave and she got to New York and she could have been so happy . . . but she kept going back down South to bring other freed slaves to freedom."

And she used to say, 'No matter what happens, keep going,' " Hillary Clinton said. "So we're going to keep going until we take back the White House!"

Yes! Whenever I see Hillary Clinton, I think of Harriet Tubman!

And as Michelle Malkinnotes, Hillary has even developed a "blackccent"! Speaking to the shakedown organization known as the National Action Network, she spoke thusly:

You know, when I walk into the Oval Office in January of 2009, I'm afraid I'm gonna lift up the rug and I'm goin' to see so much stuff uh-nder thar . . . You know, what is it about us always havin' to clean up after people? . . . But this is not just going to be pickin' up socks off the floor. This is going to be cleanin' up the government."

You know, I work with an office full of black women, and none of them - none - speak like that. Condoleezza Rice doesn't speak like that. Neither does Barak Obama. Maybe Hillary ought to wipe off the blackface and realize that doing a minstrel show while standing with the buffoonish Al Sharpton is not earning her as many points as she thinks. Then again, Hil, never mind... you're doing just fine!

And here's something to note, while speaking of blackface: Hillary has taken up blogging, just like the rest of us pajama-wearing, tinfoil-hat twisting loners! But does Hillary really share the viewsheld on firedoglake?

It's the online home for Jane Hamsher, producer of the 1994 cult classic film "Natural Born Killers" and author of a bestselling, tell-all book "Killer Instinct" on the making of the controversial movie. In Democratic political circles, though, Hamsher is better known as the author of a racially offensive attack against Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). The incident occurred last summer when Lieberman still officially carried a "D" after his name but was running an ultimately unsuccessful primary race against Ned Lamont.Hamsher, who was supporting Lamont in the race, posted a doctored photo of Lieberman in black face on HuffingtonPost.com

Based on Hillary's new manner of speaking, one thinks that she has a lot in common with the racist Hamsher indeed...incidentally, the WaPost describes firedoglake as "smart", "edgy", and "progressive", but the first post I saw when I clicked on the link was this...does using the phrase 'beat-off' in bold caps now qualify as "edgy"? Oh, Don Imus, you wuz railroaded... !

Finally, no doubt taken from the stalls in the Parkway Rest Stop, we get the cure for those Hillary blues:1. Open a new file in your computer.2. Name it “Hillary Rodham Clinton”3. Send it to the trash.4. Empty the trash.5. Your PC will ask you, “Do you really want to get rid of “Hillary Rodham Clinton?”6. Firmly Click “Yes.”7. Feel better.Yeah, that's the stuff....

The Baseball Crankcatches the New York Daily News practicing some of its themes for the upcoming 2008 presidental contest, using the candidates in the upcoming French elections as stand-ins for the expected Rudy vs. Hillary bout:French pick woman to face rightist in prez race

Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal advanced yesterday to a runoff vote that will pick a president unlike any France has seen before: a hard-edged reformer pledging a new start, ora woman promising a healing touch...Royal, 53, perfectly coiffed and dressed in a chic white suit, urged supporters last night to choose a path to a "new France" that cultivates "human values" and cares for the less fortunate."I refuse to cultivate fear," she said in a slap at Sarkozy, whose law-and-order image has made him a hated figure in Paris' troubled suburbs, rocked by riots that spread across France in the fall of 2005....

Many are predicting violence anew if Sarkozy is elected.Some voters blamed a strong anti-Sarkozy vote for yesterday's unprecedented 84% voter turnout...Yeah, just like thatstrong anti-Bush vote helped Kerry win the 2004 election!And who, exactly, are the "many" that are " predicting violence" ? The Daily News won't tell you - it runs counter to the storyline - but I can. Look here, scroll down towards the bottom...

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

See the hatemongering racists come out to play, especially during the election season...E-nough! as usual provides an insight into the French soul, and like their armpits and body odor, it ain't pretty. The following comes from an anti-Sarkozy group; E-nough! provides more links and info:

What is he standing for? The Axis of Hatred!

What is it that psychologists say about "projection? Anyway... more fun stuff from Herr Goebbel's vault:

Washington - Tel Aviv - Sarkozy - The Infernal Triangle

In France, it is always 1938 - anti-Semitism with your coffee, and white flags ready for hoisting.

Well, they'd better be ready, because as those pesky French "youths" - you know, those car-burning, Jew-bashing, stone-throwing folks of unknown ethnic and religious origin - will honestly tell you:

Monday, April 23, 2007

Yeah, we know that Corzine's 's vehicle was going 26 mph over the speed limit (a mandatory court appearance in some townships, in addition to a hefty fine/ticket), and we know that he wasn't wearing a seat belt (which quota-hungry Jersey cops pull over soccer moms and working dads for exclusively), but let's go for the Jersey Trifecta, shall we: three broken laws, and a sex scandal!

The State Police are investigating whether the trooper driving Gov. Jon Corzine at the time of last week's crash was distracted by an ongoing, bitter dispute with another police officer over a woman.

As to [Trooper Robert]Rasinski, investigators are now looking into whether he was communicating with the unidentified officer from Union County, either by phone or mobile e-mail device, while he was driving the governor or just before, according to Davy Jones, president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association."Rob's dating a girl, whose soon-to-be-ex is a cop in Union County. That guy made an allegation. Affairs of the heart are always very, very difficult," Jones said.

Rasinski has already been questioned about the dispute and possible distractions and additional questioning is anticipated, Jones said."What I do know is that they asked the obvious questions about distractions: 'Were you on the phone?' Or that the kid was on his BlackBerry," Jones said. "I can tell you, they don't get BlackBerries. Only the supervisors get BlackBerries...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Final word goes to Mark Steyn, who illustrates the stupidity of "gun-free zones" more clearly than I:Virginia Tech, remember, was a "gun-free zone," formally and proudly designated as such by the college administration. Yet the killer kept his guns and ammo on the campus. It was a "gun-free zone" except for those belonging to the guy who wanted to kill everybody. Had the Second Amendment not been in effect repealed by VT, someone might have been able to do as two students did five years ago at the Appalachian Law School: When a would-be mass murderer showed up, they rushed for their vehicles, grabbed their guns and pinned him down until the cops arrived...I live in northern New England, which has a very low crime rate, in part because it has a high rate of gun ownership. We do have the occasional murder, however. A few years back, a couple of alienated loser teens from a small Vermont town decided they were going to kill somebody, steal his ATM cards, and go to Australia. So they went to a remote house in the woods a couple of towns away, knocked on the door, and said their car had broken down. The guy thought their story smelled funny so he picked up his Glock and told 'em to get lost. So they concocted a better story, and pretended to be students doing an environmental survey. Unfortunately, the next old coot in the woods was sick of environmentalists and chased 'em away. Eventually they figured they could spend months knocking on doors in rural Vermont and New Hampshire and seeing nothing for their pains but cranky guys in plaid leveling both barrels through the screen door.So even these idiots worked it out: Where's the nearest place around here where you're most likely to encounter gullible defenseless types who have foresworn all means of resistance? Answer: Dartmouth College. So they drove over the Connecticut River, rang the doorbell, and brutally murdered a couple of well-meaning liberal professors. Two depraved misfits of crushing stupidity (to judge from their diaries) had nevertheless identified precisely the easiest murder victims in the twin-state area. To promote vulnerability as a moral virtue is not merely foolish. Like the new Yale props department policy, it signals to everyone that you're not in the real world...."Not in the real world" - like the so-called "progressives" touting energy solutions that would set developed nations back by centuries, the so-called "reality-based community" posits violence-reduction policies that simply do not close to addressing the world in which we live in today...to quote the professor who came in so handy yesterday in helping to illustrate my thoughts:"The logic was impeccable, the empirical evidence not at all."

A former Miss America gets medieval on the asses of a few intruders down on her Kentucky farm:Eighty-two-year-old former Miss America Venus Ramey shot out the tire of an SUV after she found trespassers on her land allegedly there to steal scrap metal, according to a report in the Interior Journal. The Lincoln County newspaper reported that Ramey, a Kentucky native who was Miss America in 1944 and a former resident of Cincinnati, got her snub nose .38 after hearing noises about 6 p.m. on Friday, April 13.The vehicle had backed up on her property where in one building she stores old machinery - some of it dating to the 1800s - that she inherited from her brother, the newspaper reported.

When she asked the men what they were doing, she said they told her they were "scrapping," in other words looking for scrap metal to sell to recyclers."I said, this happens to be my equipment, and they said, if you'll move your truck, we'll leave. I said, no you won't, and I shot one of their tires," Ramey told the newspaper.That's some fine shooting, ma'am.And while the old lasses in Kentucky get it, the ivory-tower eggheads in Yale show their ruthless cluelessness by....banning fake gunsin school plays. That's correct...fake:

In the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions. Students involved in this weekend's production of "Red Noses" said they first learned of the new rules on Thursday morning, the same day the show was slated to open. They were subsequently forced to alter many of the scenes by swapping more realistic-looking stage swords for wooden ones, a change that many students said was neither a necessary nor a useful response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech....

Brandon Berger '10, who plays a swordsman in the show, said the switch to an obviously fake wooden sword has changed the nature of his part from an "evil, errant knight to a petulant child." No, Brandon - the only petulant child is your emotionally retardeddean...Mr. Volokh adds the following thought:Do Yale students have a hard time telling theater from reality? Are they so emotionally fragile that they would be traumatized by seeing a realistic sword on stage?Equally lost on the meaning - and results of - gun control is the Japanese. Despite some of the world's tightest gun control laws, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot to death by an angered member of the Yakuza. The well-thought out response of the Japanese government? Why, even MORE gun control! Isn't it obvious?We want to call on all ministries and agencies concerned to take proactive gun-control measures,” Mr Shiozaki, the top spokesman for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said…Japan already strictly controls guns, with only police and licensed hunters and some sportsmen allowed to own firearms.Boy, that'll scare the Yakuza! Why don't you make the whole Japanese nation a "Gun-Free Zone"? For sure, that will convince the bad guys to lay down their arms! I mean, they certainly wouldn't want to be the only ones with weapons, would they?Hmmm...wait a minute.....I mean.....And the liberals, in their utter moral blindness, continue to insist that it's only because of the evil gun lobby that stricter gun laws are not on the books. Someone tell E.J. Dionne to call Miss Venus Ramey down in Kentucky, and see if they agree on the definition of "evil"...UPDATE: From an editorial in the Washington Post, bemoaning Virginia's "lax" gun laws:Just this year, a bill in the legislature to prohibit people from carrying guns into day-care facilities died quietly in a Senate committee. If anyone, God Forbid, would want to go on a shooting spree in a day care center, would a law saying "no, no!" prevent them? The only thing that could stop him would be an armed provider.And that's the person whom the WaPost wants to disarm.There's another article, on a completely different subject, where a liberal Poli-Sci professor utters the following inanity (regarding female legislatures and term limits):"The logic was impeccable, the empirical evidence not at all."The problem with the left is that they think their logic is impeccable, when it is flawed from the outset. And when the emperical evidence proves them wrong? They close their eyes, stamp their feet, plug their ears and sing, "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..."And we all suffer for it.Final note here...

Friday, April 20, 2007

Growing Number of Americans See Warming as Leading Threat is the headline in the Washington Post, and is it any surprise, given the full-on propoganda campaign the media has been conduction? Type the phrase "Global Warming" into Google News Search, and you get over 30,000 articles in the last 30 days. Let's look at some of the solutions offered, and where they will take us:

One in five favors higher taxes on electricity to encourage conservation, and about a third support higher gasoline taxes.Sixty-two percent of those surveyed say the government should require power plants to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.Forty-two percent think the government should require greater fuel efficiency for vehicles, something both the administration and Congress back, and 36 percent want to require manufacturers to produce more efficient air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances

Higher taxes on electricity? One cycle of bills will be all it takes to get folks screaming, and to wipe the sanctimonious smirks off the faces of vote-counting Democrats. Will they try to stagger the bills, making the "rich" (you know, anyone who earns more than $60,000/year) pay even more to carry the electric bills of the poor? Again, one cycle - either billing or election - and this charade will end.

Higher gasoline taxes? The ultimate regressive tax on the poor. Since the government makes more of a profit than the oil companieson each gallon sold, shouldn't taxes be cut? Or is commuting to work now an activity covered under liquor and cigarette "sin taxes"?

Require power plants to reduce emissions? Not a bad idea, but see the whole 'taxes on electricity" thing above - how much of a economic toll for a 0.0001 reduction in greenhouse gases? Don't ask China, they are building two new coal-blowers a week....

Greater fuel efficiancy for automobiles? They already make plenty of fuel-efficient cars, and they sell just fine. At what point to you force automakers to build cars out of tin to shave off another hypothetical 1.7 MPG highway/ 1.9 city ? And how many kids need to die in previously harmless fender-benders just to feed Al Gore's ego? Of course, you can try to take my Jeepaway - when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands, of course....More efficient appliances? Another great idea, except - how long can President Edwards stay in office when only the rich can afford air conditioning and refrigerators, and the rest of us are reaching in our iceboxes for some warm water to drink out on the fire escape?Some of these solutions sound easy, and this poll gives the WaPost the headline it wants, but I reckon not one respondant was given the personal economic costs of any of the solutions proffered in this sorry survey. If we do it the Washington Post's way, we'll all have plenty of clean cool air to breathe - 'cause we'll be living in trees.But that's just the kind of progress the so-called "progressives" want. Ironic, ain't it?Bring it on, please...it's the kind of liberal political suicide the JerseyNut just looooves to watch...UPDATE 4/21: Some "Green Myths"to check out in today's NY Post !

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost" ... The bleak assessment - the most pointed yet from Reid-came as the House voted 215-199 to uphold legislation ordering troops out of Iraq next year.

Reid said he told President Bush on Wednesday he thought the war could not be won through military force, although he said the U.S. could still pursue political, economic and diplomatic means to bring peace to Iraq.

Chamberlain believed that Germany had been badly treatedby the Allies after it was defeated in the First World War. He therefore thought that the German government had genuine grievances and that these needed to be addressed. He also thought that by agreeing to some of the demands being made by Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy, he could avoid a European war.

Switch "Germany" with "Islamists", and "Chamberlain" with "Reid", and you have a virtual repetition of the events of 70 years ago.

That's the title of an editorial in today's New York Daily News- man, when even the liberal media is getting on you while you lie in a hospital bed, you know you've got some baggage to contend with:While we continue to wish New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine a swift and complete recovery, new facts about his near-fatal accident indicate he might not be in the position he is in - on a ventilator in intensive care - had he and his driver obeyed the law.

Soon after last Thursday's crash, it was reported the governor, in violation of state law, had not worn a seat belt. His injuries, and reports that the impact threw him from front seat to cargo bay, indicated something might have been amiss.

Now, the state police superintendent admits the gov's SUV, driven by a state trooper, was doing 91 mph. For the trooper, and Corzine - who one must presume was not oblivious - to be traveling at that speed (lights a-strobing, too) on the 65-mph Garden State Parkway was irresponsible and endangered everyone in their vicinity. Is it any wonder other vehicles were swerving on the highway?And to what emergency was the governor responding? To that life-and-death meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team...Sounds like the Daily News read our poston Tuesday....The Philadelphia Inquirertries to clear the trooper at the wheel:

State Police Superintendent Col. Joseph "Rick" Fuentes said that the governor's drivers would be asked to obey all traffic laws in a nonemergency situation, but added that troopers have discretion to use emergency lights and to speed, as necessary."There are no guidelines . . . nothing about a maximum speed in the normal course of transporting the governor," he said.Somebody please tell that trooper that he used his discretion poorly…Finally, they're getting hot under the collar in South Jersey as well - from the Cherry Hill Courier Post:It is outrageous in a state where people are ticketed every day for not buckling up that the governor would foolishly not wear a seat belt and allow his motorcade to travel dangerously fast -- 91 mph according to information retrieved from a black box in Corzine's state Chevrolet Suburban.Corzine's driver, State Trooper Robert Rasinski, said didn't realize he was going 91 mph -- 26 mph above the speed limit -- according to State Police Superintendent Col. Joseph "Rick" Fuentes. We don't buy it. Anyone who has ever driven would easily know, without looking at the speedometer, the difference between going 65 mph, the speed limit on the parkway in Galloway where the crash occurred, and 91 mph. Rasinski and Corzine, sitting in the front passenger seat, may not have known their exact speed, but there's no way they didn't know they were going much faster than the speed limit.

Corzine's two-vehicle motorcade put other New Jerseyans' lives at risk by needlessly going so fast...But really, what is the importance of the lives of a few blue-collar New Jerseyans compared to the pressing need of a governor to pose next to a disgraced shock jock?

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The SUV carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about 91 mph moments before it crashed, Superintendent of State Police Col. Rick Fuentes said Tuesday.The governor was critically injured when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway just north of Atlantic City last week. He apparently was not wearing his seat belt as he rode in the front passenger’s seat. The speed limit along that stretch of the parkway is 65 mph.

The state trooper-driven sport utility vehicle was in the left lane with its emergency lights flashing when a pickup tried to get out of its way. Instead, it set off a chain reaction that resulted in the crash...

While we cannot bear ill will towards our injured governor while he lies in a hospital, and while we wish him a speedy recovery (this blog prefers to defeat their ideological opponents with logic and sound reasoning, and never takes pride in a fellow American's pain), the sense of elitism here is too thick to be ignored.

Ignoring the seat belt law, which the average citizen can get pulled over exclusively for, and going 90-95 MPH in a 65 MPH zone (which is a mandatory court appearance in many New Jersey townships) in order to get to a flippin' meeting with Don Imus is bad enough. But apparently the governor's vehicle virtually ran the red pickup truck off the road as its driver frantically veered in an attempt to get out of the way of the speeding motorcade.

All this, to make political hay off of the Don Imus debacle.

Imagine, for a moment, if it had been the young driver of the pickup truck that had gotten killed while trying to get out of the way of Corzine's political ambition (so to speak). What would the reaction have been if it were discovered that the governor's SUV, in a rush to get his share of publicity from a media feeding frenzy, had killed an innocent young man?

Would Corzine be held more accountable for his reckless, illegal actions? Would we have seen the State Trooper behind the wheel hung out to dry?

Would we have even have found out about an embarrassing, potentially career-ending, incident like this at all? After all, there is more than just garbage in New Jersey landfills....Get better, Mr. Governor. 'Cause we have a lot of questions we'd like to ask....UPDATE: Wow, even the MSM is getting on his case (a bit) - see the AP story here...

...the administration at VA Tech had advanced a university rule preventing concealed carry on campus, for permit holders. Although someone carrying on campus would not be violating any state firearm laws my understanding is that they could be prosecuted for "trespass" and could be fired or expelled from the school.

At this point the authorities are saying that at least 20 persons[now 32 - ed.] have been killed at VA Tech by a gunman who didn't even bother to conceal his weapon.

...a single person with a concealed carry permit could have prevented the tragedy.The real travesty is that no one who might have put a stop to this was armed, because they'd been stripped by good intentions--thus making the campus relatively safe for an attacker who wasn't really worried about expulsion....

Of course, the university tells you that the lack of handguns makes the campus a safer place - hmmm...

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Another dim bulbin the Virginia Tech administration - Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech:

Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.

Hey Hincker - your policy isn't worth sh*t, and it helped kill 32 innocent people today, as you helped make these poor students sitting ducks for a sicko who knew no one could shoot back.

Michelle Malkin has a "blame-the-guns" watch, as she points out the media picked up the liberal talking points ASAP.

How come nobody in the media asked if gun control was the problem, or suggested an expansion of concealed-carry laws, like those on the books in some of the safer statesin the nation? Could it be because no one in our "diverse" media - no one - shares that opinion?

And if that's not an example of institutional bias, I do not know what is.

May God bless the souls of the dead, and may He show no mercy upon their executioner....

A few of my past thoughts on the issue here and here . And one should always keep an open ear when The Bitch Girlsare talking guns...

Sunday, April 15, 2007

...more about the hypocrisy of the nanny-state left, than about poor Governor Corzine himself, but nevertheless:

Certainly wearing a seat belt is simple common sense. Some may quarrel with the notion of legislating mandatory use. But when in fact state law requires its use, and the governor of that state ignores that law, we are justified in our scepticism of those who claim to know what is best for us, but apply different standards to themselves.

I regret that the Governor suffers. I do not regret how sharply this incident highlights the hypocrisy of the nannies, who, even as they click their tongues at our behavior, and attempt to prescribe our better behavior, arrogantly ignore their own intrusions on our freedom of choice.

How could the chief executive of a state routinely put the chief executive of his state, elected by and responsible to the voters to discharge his duties for a full term, at risk of death or injury for something so self-indulgent as not wearing a seatbelt? Not to mention that a governor has some duty to model responsible and rational behavior.[er, not in New Jersey - see McGreevy, Jim - ed.] If the motor pool were found to have neglected maintenance of the brakes or tires of a governor's vehicle, heads would roll, and rightly so.From Stridulations:

I suspect that the guy is a real piece of work to have for a boss. You have to wonder about someone – even a successful politician – who lives with such an illusion of control that he not only doesn’t normally comply with his own state’s seat belt laws, but has been known to chew out the state trooper on his guard detail for gently suggesting that he buckle up.

Stridulations has a nice suggestion for a seatbelt PSA, as well, starring the governor...

The driver of the red pickup truck mistook Governor Corzine’s SUV — its police lights flashing — for an emergency vehicle, authorities said Saturday, and was unaware that his pulling over was a factor in the wreck that critically injured the governor.Corzine’s schedule Thursday night required that he cover 90 miles — to Princeton from Atlantic City — in 90 minutes. State police have not said how fast the motorcade was traveling.

Meanwhile, the heartless liberals at The Philadelphia Inquireruse this tragic situation as an opportunity to point a finger of blame at the true innocent in this whole debacle - Corzine's SUV:

New Jersey state police say Corzine travels in SUVs for safety reasons. Safety experts say an SUV has risks that may outweigh its benefits........safety experts said SUVs are less stable and less maneuverable than passenger cars, even heavy sedans such as the Lincoln Town Car, which is another favorite choice for VIP travel (Gov. Rendell uses one). And the SUV's height could have reduced the protection that a guardrail is designed to provide.

And who are these experts? The Inquirer does not name them, leading me to believe they exist only in the fevered imaginations of the denizans of the PI's newsroom. But the Philly Inquirer fails to address another glaring issue - why are ordinary folks who dare to drive SUV's verbally maligned and abused by Democratic politicians, who at the same time feel free to use them (on the state dime) for "safety reasons"?

What about my safety? Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot - the rules enforced against the New Jersey proletariat do not apply to its privileged political class....UPDATE: Uh-oh, looks like I may wind up on Blew Jersey's sh*t list, for, you know, speaking "incorrectly"....am I gonna get Imus'ed?

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Famed celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder should resign or be ousted as head of the powerful state Commission on Judicial Conduct because his new book "invokes racial, ethnic and religious invective," commission members unanimously declared yesterday.

The unprecedented action by nine members of the 33-year-old commission - which has the power to recommend judges be kicked off the bench - came in the wake of Felder's publication with co-author and famed comedian Jackie Mason of "Schmucks: Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous and Good Guys Gone Bad."Commission members said they were "exploring our options in terms of removing him as chair." Reached by The Post, a defiant Felder declared, "I'm not Imus"...

Oh, really? Please to note the title of this post....anyway, the stupidity continues:

The commission members...contended that "much of the material" in the book "undermine[s] the appearance of impartiality and the dignity and probity that is required of the commission chair."Although the book purports to be a work of humor, much of it is crude, biased, vulgar and otherwise demeaning," the statement continued. The commission members contended the book "repeatedly" used racial, ethnic and religious invective, claims "nothing in our country is more insidious than affirmative action," and argues that whenever the word "allegedly" is used in legal matters "you can bet it's true."

Ah, so now daring to challenge a liberal policy is grounds for dismissal? Interesting....

Well, thank Don Imus - for sucking up to some of the nastiest leftist race-baiters in the business. Once you empower them, you disenfrachise everyone else. From yesterday's Opinion Journal:

It's clear that the networks fired Imus not because what he said was unacceptable but because the controversy it stirred up was not going to go away. This means that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson--two men whose bigotry has done a thousandfold more harm than Imus's--are able to declare victory and pose as moral arbiters.

Thanks, Don. I always thought you were a jackass; your actions after you got busted for the "nappy ho's" comments - which were no better or worse than the other bilgethat comes out of your mouth on a daily basis - confirmed your status. I cannot grasp what you hoped to accomplish by seeking the forgiveness of an unrepentant racist (Tawana Brawley? Freddy's Fashion Mart ?), but perhaps your current unemployment is just desserts for taking advice from the liberal cadres that appear on your show and, up until about a week ago, were all your best friends.

And now, with Sharpton's blessing, all the other racists are coming out of the closet and having a field day - Eugene Robinson at the Washington Postmakes excuses for "black on black" racism, while bashing Whitey:

For young black hip-hop artists to use such language to demean black women is similarly deplorable -- and, I would argue, even more damaging. But come on, people, don't deceive yourselves that it's precisely the same thing.

F*ck you, Eugene. And although I don't have a racist bone in my body, I'll say it to defy you:

NAPPY-HEADED HO'S !

Don't mess with my freedom of speech, Eugene. But I guess we can all thank Don Imus for this - for Mr. Felder losing his position for criticizing affirmative action, for Eugene telling me what I can and cannot say, and for all the other restrictions that will soon come down upon on "free" speech. Impolite will now become illegal. Welcome to liberal America.

Commentary from Joe R. Hicks, who disagrees with fellow WaPost columnist Robinson and asks that we please drop the race card:...we are confronted with the specter of individuals who have little in the way of moral credibility, and have themselves made bigoted public comments (Jackson called New York "Hymietown" and Sharpton referred to Jews as "diamond merchants") now presenting themselves as arbiters of public morality and good taste in broadcasting.This, combined with the reality of today's hip-hop and gangsta rap CDs and videos, which commonly use bigoted, misogynistic lyrics that make the assault on Imus appear hypocritical in the extreme. This is more than just a double standard; it is an agenda of racial opportunism that promotes the view that blacks are powerless victims of white racism. In this view, blacks are always in need of government intervention to save them from white hostility.Gee, now what political class has that agenda? Thanks again Imus, you flippin' jackass, for empowering them all...UPDATE 4/15: More fallout? Entertainer Don Ho dies at 76

Friday, April 13, 2007

...to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, badly injured yesterday in an automobile accident on the Garden State Parkway:Doctor Steven Ross says Corzine is stable, and that he could be removed from a ventilator within the next few days. He's still heavily sedated, because the pain from his chest injuries is making it difficult to breathe.The crash broke six ribs, as well as a leg, a vertebra and the governor's sternum. Authorities are looking for a pickup driver who's believed to have caused the crash.State Senator Cody will be standing in as acting Governor until Corzine recovers; he did an admirable job of holding down the fort (in a centrist manner!) while filling in for the disgraced Jim McGreevy.Sounds like Corzine is quite banged up and lucky to be alive. We wish him a speedy recovery.UPDATE 4/14: From today's New York Post:New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine wasn't wearing a seat belt when he was badly injured in a highway crash - violating a law that the Garden State spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to promote. The governor's chief of staff said yesterday it was unclear whether his security detail asked him to buckle up. "I don't want to speak to what the job of the state trooper would be, but those of you who know Governor Corzine know he's not always amenable to suggestion," Tom Shea said. "So I'm not sure that might have made all the difference anyway."If he was not, he certainly should have been," wearing his seat belt, Shea said. "And we would encourage the State Police to issue a citation."[yea, right! - ed.]So if you are "not amenable to suggestion", you are free to disobey the law. Will that work the next time a quota-hungry Jersey cop pulls me over?More, on the editorial page:The question folks must be asking today: Why was the governor - sitting in the front passenger seat - not wearing his seat belt? Doing so is not just a matter of safety - in New Jersey, it's a matter of law.Indeed, the Garden State has one of the strictest seat-belt laws in the country.And the state seems to take enforcement seriously: In 2000, the Legislature toughened the statute to enable cops to pull over violators even if failure to buckle-up was their only offense.Previously, tickets could only be issued in the event of another violation. I'm surprised the Post still doesn't get it....In New Jersey, laws do not apply to the privileged political class, just like rudimentary economics do not apply to state employees. State laws are constructed for, and designed to harrass and punish, the private-sector middle class. Watch the politicians lecture us now on the importance of wearing seat belts - and reminding us that it's the law - and wait for the next one to get busted (and hopefully, not killed) for ignoring it....

Thursday, April 12, 2007

So I stumble upon The Great Firewall of Chinaback in early April - it's a page where one can a test a website address and see if it’s blocked from viewing in China. Entering my own URL, the test engine quickly reported back that Right, Wing Nut! is fully available in China. Sighed with relief, I did, to know that folks in Bejing could gather 'round the glow in the internet cafe and get their fill of the shenanigans of various and sundry New Jersey politicians...

A few days later - less than a week - I noticed via the much-scorned Sitemeter that, for the first time in an extremely long time, I had a visitorfrom China. But besides country of origin, I could glean very little about what our little surfer monkey was reading/doing while on the site late that evening. I thought back to my visit to The Great Firewall, but did a mental shake of the head. Just a coincidence.

Another couple of days pass by...and then, just a few minutes ago, I accidentally clicked the on link to The Great Firewall, and took that as a divine sign to check my URL one more time.

And what do you know? This blog is now banned in China.

What pushed our fearless Chinese censor over the edge? Stories detailing Hilly Clinton's travails in New Jersey? My relentless pre-election Bob Menendez-bashing? Salacious slash fiction(?) starring Nancy Pelosi?Ah, who knows...but I always though it would be cool for some guy/girl in China to stumble upon this blog while looking for something entirely unrelated, read a few lines, and just say to themselves, "WTF ??" before clicking away...A joy I will now never know. Damn those Chinese Communists!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Your emminence," Nancy purred with a slight genuflect. "I bring word from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel is ready to --""Die?" exclaimed Assad, his long, llama-like neck undulating with excitement. "Committ mass suicide and burn in hell like the Jewish pig dogs they are? Nancy, you red hot monkey woman, you!! I KNEW you could do it!""Actually," the saucy Speaker continued, "I was going to say that they are ready to talk peace.""Oh," he sighed. "That's good, too...I guess. So will this "peace" you speak of result in more dead Jews?" "Doesn't it always?" Nancy replied with a wink....Read it all....

So we bow to the demands of the appeasement-oriented left, remove North Korea from the "Axis of Evil" and negotiate in good faith with them, bow to all of their sticking points, and we get rewarded thusly:North Korea wanted to delay a weekend deadline for shutting down its nuclear reactor by a month, but the United States said that was too long, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday."We let them know that this was not acceptable and the issue was dropped," he said. Instead, Richardson said the shutdown should only take a "few days."The communist country struck a deal with the U.S. and four other nations in February to shut down its main nuclear reactor by Saturday in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.The North Koreans have broken every single deal with us, why should this latest laughable treaty (stop threatening us with nukes, and we'll feed your people and pay you handsomely!) be any different?No doubt the hand-wringers will take further steps back in order to prevent this "deal" from falling through; North Korea, like any good negotiator, knows it is in a position of strength and is trying to squeeze out a final few goodies. Who knows what an "few days", or an extra month (if only that) of nuclear activity can produce for these clowns?Backwards, we continue to fall backwards....

Monday, April 09, 2007

Yup, there are two Americas, all right - John and Elizabeth Edward's rich white Democratic America, and everyone else, whom they will not even talk to, because they are, you know, different:

Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the "rabid, rabid Republican" who owns property across the street from her Orange County home -- and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person." I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview...

Hmmm - last I heard is that the Second Amendment was still in the Constitution, and that it wasn't a crime - yet - to be a registered (aka "rabid") Republican:

Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn't have the proper approval. "I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time," Johnson said.

Edwards views Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition. Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he's spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract."I have to budget. I have to live within my means," Johnson said. "I don't have millions of dollars to fix the place."

How about sharing the wealth, Elizabeth? If the poor folks across the way are unable to fix up their homestead, perhaps a little neighborly liberal charity would be in order. Or is Mr. Johnson not a legitmate member of the "other" America because he is Republican? Will Democratic social programs now require the "proper" party identification card?

The kicker:

"I thought he was supposed to be for the poor people," Johnson said. "But does he ever socialize with any poor people? He doesn't speak to me."

Takes a poor good 'ol boy like Mr. Johnson to uncover what all the rich white liberals and their lackys in the media refuse to tell you: John Edwards and his wife are phonies, and their appeal to poor people is a scam to get them into power and institute a radical wealth redistribution, which will avoid hurting the rich and be unable to help the poor. It would create a lot of additional people dependant on government, and a lot of new government employees, but isn't that what the Democratic platform is really all about?

John and Elizabeth as the ultimate Three Card Monty team - one shills, while the other marks the cards....